What I Saw At the Discombobulation

Speaking of disbelief, behold the dregs of the self-pitying anti-war movement. The white-flag crowd had so much trouble getting coverage of its worn-out, giant puppet-toting, drum-beating, ratty lingerie-flashing, Bush-cursing antics on Sunday that a sympathizer at the Associated Press devoted an entire sob story to the apathy. "CodePink faces tough odds for public's attention," the AP's Christine Simmons mourned. Perhaps if more than 10 of them showed up at one time to do something other than scream about BusHitler or bawl about detained Gitmo jihadists, they'd have better luck.

At Denver's City Center on Monday night, law enforcement authorities encountered about 100 aimless grievance-mongers -- self-described as "anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-war" -- who finally fixed on something concrete to protest when their friends were arrested for refusing to disperse. "My freedom of speech was suppressed," one protester complained as she spoke freely to the media and acknowledged that she hadn't been arrested or asked to show identification.

In the melee, a few responsible adults were accidentally hit with pepper spray. Otherwise, Denver blogger Charlie Martin, who was covering the scene for Pajamas Media, quipped: "It was the world's most boring riot."

Finally, in a sorry attempt to re-create Abbie Hoffman's satirical stunt aimed at levitating the Pentagon, a dozen Re-create '68 stragglers dressed up like the cast of "Harry Potter," wielded magic wands and joined hands to float the Denver Mint. The Mint stayed firmly on the ground. To salvage the abysmal turnout, an unhinged contingent of 9/11 conspiracy theorists started barking at me. One buffoon shouted, "Kill Michelle Malkin," while the levitation experts chanted, "Peace and Justice!" and a wizard paraded around in his "Arrest Bush" T-shirt with Che Guevara promoters tossing fake quarters in the air.

To paraphrase a favorite left-wing bumper sticker slogan, discombobulation is the highest form of patriotism. Blame bankrupt ideology, not the altitude.